Frankie Kazarian Reveals Surprise AEW Departure And What's Next For Him

Impact Wrestling's Hard to Kill 2023 pay-per-view proved to be newsworthy. One reason is that the show featured Frankie Kazarian, who's still featured on AEW's roster page as of this writing, announcing that he's signed a long-term contract with Impact.

Kazarian was one of the original AEW signings in 2019, working there alongside Christopher Daniels and Scorpio Sky as SCU and becoming one-half of the company's inaugural tag team champions with Sky. However, Kazarian had been deemphasized for a while and was being loaned out to Impact on a semi-regular basis.

"Last year, I had the opportunity to come back to Impact Wrestling, and I won the X Division Title," Kazarian explained in his promo at Hard to Kill. "I fought for the world title, and I did all of that as a guest in this house. And I went back where I was, and I was surrounded by strangers I thought were my friends, and something just didn't seem right. I learned a long time ago that in this life, and in this business if you do not stand up for yourself, nobody else will. And I learned that I hate complacency. Very recently, I had a decision to make, and that was, do I sit idly by, keep my mouth shut, and be complacent? Or do I bet on myself and walk away? Well, you guys don't have to wait long for the answer, because I'm here to tell you that earlier today, I signed a long-term contract with Impact Wrestling!"

Kazarian, 45, last wrestled for AEW at the December 21 tapings in San Antonio, Texas, where he lost to Konosuke Takeshita in a match recorded for the December 26 edition of "Dark: Elevation." He had previously been on a winning streak on AEW's YouTube shows.